


Tyrants Willing to be Dethroned

by weepingnaiad



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Community: cottoncandy_bingo, Established Relationship, Infidelity, M/M, background consensual kink, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-21
Updated: 2014-03-21
Packaged: 2018-01-16 12:36:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1347694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weepingnaiad/pseuds/weepingnaiad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim learns a big secret about Bones that shakes the foundations of their relationship.  Can he trust Bones again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tyrants Willing to be Dethroned

**Author's Note:**

> **Beta:** As ever, my brain twin, and soul sister, abigail89 , wrangled my words into something readable and coherent. Thank you, m'dear. But, of course, I fiddle even after posting, so any mistakes are all on me.
> 
>  **A/N:** Title from James Joyce.

_“Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.”  
― James Joyce_

The soft chime startled Jim and he opened the door, surprised by a messenger holding out a signature PADD.

“Need you to sign for this.”

After signing for the delivery, Jim took the mystery PADD and glanced at it. No sender. He opened it and dropped to the sofa, his studies forgotten as he flipped it on. The revealed images made his head spin, especially as the enclosed message only read, “Think you should see this.” There was no signature included. Nothing.

Once he looked through the images, Jim was quiet, contemplative, and angry. _Very_ angry.

~~*~~

“Jim.” McCoy’s shoulders sagged with relief. It had been a long shift and he was damned glad that Jim hadn’t gone out for the night. He had been afraid that Jim wouldn’t stay in even though he had studying to do. Odd thing was, the lights were dim, the room quiet, and Jim was sitting silently on the couch. “Jim?”

“McCoy.” His voice could have cut glass and Leonard flinched, even though he had no idea what had happened.

“Jim?” He dropped his bag on the side table and toed off his boots. “Lights, 75%.” When he could finally see Jim’s eyes, the pure, unadulterated fury in the ice blue, McCoy wished he had left the lights low. “Jim? What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Jim repeated, his voice a strangled shout, a cross between a growl and a sob. “How the fuck can you look in the mirror? I trusted you!” Standing, he tossed the PADD at McCoy and pushed past him.

“What the fuck?” McCoy caught the PADD before it hit the ground and glanced at it, sucking in a harsh breath. “Shit.” He looked up at Jim, his breath stuttering in his chest.

“Shit is right.” Jim was stabbing his arms into his battered black leather jacket. “I can’t fucking believe that I felt guilty every time I so much as glanced at someone else! You let me think that you were practically a goddamned monk! That you hadn’t been with anyone since Jocelyn and then I find this out? Well, fuck you!”

Jim was gone before McCoy could say anything and Leonard just stood there, gaping at the closed door, his worst fears come true. He sucked in great gulps of air, trying to keep from collapsing as his heart and mind wailed, _‘Shitshitshitfuckfuckfuck! Goddammit!”_

McCoy sprawled on the sofa and reached for the nearest glass, swallowing the amber liquid down. He stifled a cry when he noticed Jim’s lip prints on the rim. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself, shoved down the bile rising in his throat, pushed aside his fear. He couldn’t go after Jim at the moment, the kid needed time, and so did McCoy. He had to figure out what the hell had happened and how.

He looked down at the PADD still gripped in his hand. As he flipped through the images, he cringed. Jim shouldn’t have found out like this. _He_ should have told Jim, should have trusted him with this part of himself. The first pictures were fuzzy, you could barely tell that it was McCoy shirtless in leather pants, collar and cuffs. Each image was progressively clearer until the last one. His heart stopped.

There he was, on the club’s stage on all fours, naked but for the leather straps restraining him. He was bruised and battered with come liberally splattered on his back and face. “Fuck.”

~~*~~

McCoy downed more bourbon and stared at the PADD flipping through the images over and over as he tried to figure out who could have sent them and more importantly… why? The club had surveillance cameras everywhere, but they also had many security precautions in place to protect their patrons’ identities. So how had these images surfaced? No personal cameras were allowed, these had to come from the club’s own security feeds which meant an inside job, which meant McCoy needed help.

“Chris?” he squinted at the captain when he answered the comm, his own eyes bleary, but only from the long shift and staring at that damned PADD for too long. His eyes were not pricking with restrained emotion. At least he tried to tell himself that.

“Doc? What’s wrong? You look like shit.”

There was something about Christopher Pike’s voice and commanding manner that McCoy always responded to. His gut untwisted and the fear that had been drumming along his spine slowed as he told Chris what had happened, the words spilling out in a mad rush of fear and remorse.

“Don’t say I told you so, Chris. Just don’t. I know I fucked up, but something’s going on here and I need your help. No one should have those images, so this has to be an inside job. I can deal with Vivica. She’ll have someone’s balls for this…”

“Slow down, Doc. Slow down. Vivica will have more than their balls, but calm down and tell me what you need me to do?”

“Find Jim… please? He was…” McCoy ducked his head and sighed before he looked back up and met Chris’ eyes. “He was furious and hurt. He’s not going to be thinking clearly and I’m afraid he’ll do something foolish, if not downright dangerous.”

Pike gave McCoy a reassuring smile. “Piece of cake. I’m pretty good at corralling wayward cadets. I’ll keep him safe for you here at my place.”

McCoy swallowed and nodded grimly. “Thanks, Chris. I owe you one.”

Chris shook his head. “I got you into the club, seems like the least I could do.”

~~*~~

McCoy’s fury hadn’t abated and even Vivica’s ice cold rage directed at the perpetrator couldn’t soothe his ire and dispel the block of stone sitting in his stomach. He had fucked up royally and now had to face the music. Swallowing, he tried to get a handle on his whirling thoughts as the lift moved to Chris’ floor. Before he had, he was standing there, staring at Chris’ nameplate.

He pressed the chime and prayed to every god he’d ever heard of that Jim would give him a chance to explain, that he hadn’t lost him. Even the mere thought of that sent his heart skittering, his muscles twitching, and he started hyperventilating. He rested his forehead against the wall and forced himself to breathe deeply and slowly.

Chris opened the door and the guarded expression on his face sent McCoy’s emotions into a tailspin. “He’s here?” At Chris’ tight nod, he asked, “How is he?”

Chris shook his head and stepped back to allow McCoy into the room. McCoy stopped, transfixed by the sight of Jim sprawled on the sofa, glaring at him. But the cuff on his arm, holding him in place said more than any words could.

McCoy turned and looked at Chris, his eyes begging for help.

“Oh, no. You got yourself into this mess. I only agreed to find him and keep him safe for you. I owed you that much. _This_ you’ll have to deal with yourself.” It was only then that McCoy noted Chris’ jacket.

“You-you’re leaving?”

Chris leaned in close and whispered. “You hurt him. Bad. You have to tell him everything. I told him about the club, how I recruited you as their doctor, but I left it there. I can’t do this for you, Doc. Good luck… you’re going to need it.” He pulled away and nodded at Jim, purposefully oblivious to the ice blue daggers directed his way. “See you later, Kirk.”

~~*~~

McCoy took slow steps before kneeling on the floor in front of Jim’s lowered face. “Jim?” he begged, his voice contrite and low.

Jim turned away, pulled his legs up to his chest and ducked his head to his knees. “Unlock this damned cuff and just leave me the fuck alone.”

McCoy’s heart shattered. Jim’s voice was soft and pained, raw betrayal washing it in bitter gray.

“Jim, please? Let me explain.”

Jim’s head shot up, his eyes were blood shot and red rimmed. He had been drinking but looked like Chris had dealt with the alcohol coursing through his system. “Explain? You can fucking explain lying? You have an explanation for cheating? Gary was right. You’ve been playin’ me the entire time.” He jingled the cuff again. “Keeping me here against my will is called ‘kidnapping’, McCoy.”

At the mention of Gary, McCoy’s own tightly held anger exploded. “Oh, no! That bastard is the one who did this! You’re going to listen to me for a change instead of him!”

Jim’s eyes narrowed and his lips drew into a tight line. “It wasn’t Gary that cheated on me, McCoy. So why should I bother listening to you? Gary’s my friend. He was just trying to protect me.”

“Wake up, man! Gary wasn’t protecting you. He’s been trying to get into your pants for years. Looks like he finally figured out a scheme that might work, doesn’t it?” McCoy fumed and couldn’t help that he was shouting, his fists clenched and pressed tightly into his thighs. All he wanted to do was wrap Jim up in his arms, to hold him once again, to apologize and beg forgiveness, but he’d lost that right when he hadn’t been 100% honest with Jim.

The tightness around Jim’s eyes eased minutely and only someone as intimately familiar with Jim as McCoy was would ever have noticed. “That’s right. A friend of Gary’s works at the club monitoring the feeds. He must have gotten into the archives and copied them for Gary. Obviously it was a ploy to mess things up between us.”

McCoy took a chance and moved closer, but still not touching. “Darlin’, those images… that picture, it was old… from my first few months here. I needed money, needed a job, and my license was suspended. I couldn’t work at any hospital or clinic. Pike introduced me to Vivica and she hired me on the spot. I took care of overzealous patrons, got them healed up enough to go home to their families, made sure everyone could walk away, and in return I got a decent paycheck…” he swallowed, his eyes seeking Jim’s before he could continue, “and a membership…”

McCoy’s voice faltered. He stopped and his gaze dropped to the floor as his shoulders slumped. Jocelyn had known about his predilection before they were married. She wasn’t into it so had given him ‘free passes’ a couple of times a year. It had been enough, but now, now here he was. He hadn’t told Jim, hadn’t said anything, hadn’t revealed that side of himself, because he didn’t know how Jim would take it. He was convinced that Jim, for all his exploits, was pretty vanilla when it came to sex. Their past months together had done nothing to convince him otherwise.

“Bones, who do I believe?”

McCoy sucked in a sharp breath. That was the first time Jim had called him Bones. Maybe there was a chance. With his heart in his throat, he replied, “Viveca, the club owner. Not Gary. Not me. I’m telling you the god’s honest truth, darlin’, but I understand why you wouldn’t trust me.”

“Why didn’t you trust me?” The hurt radiating from Jim’s tightly coiled form broke Bones. He couldn’t keep away and was immediately on the sofa wrapping Jim up in his arms.

“I was scared, darlin’. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Couldn’t risk losing you.”

Jim shuddered in Bones’ arms, but didn’t pull away. McCoy felt him relent, felt when the tension began to leave Jim’s body and his heart began to beat again.

“How long, Bones? How long?” Jim’s voice was muffled against McCoy’s neck, but he heard him.

“Not since we said the word _‘exclusive’_. I’ve been lied to and cheated on, kid. I wouldn’t do that to you.” McCoy’s voice faltered. He hadn’t lied, but he had omitted important truths. Was it so very different?

“I’m sorry for not being honest with you about this, for leaving us open to this kind of manipulation. I’m sorry for everything, Jim. Just please say you’ll give me another chance?”

Jim sighed heavily and McCoy’s heart dropped when there was no answer. He was steadying himself for the rejection, the brush off. He could feel his heart withering and shriveling and it fucking hurt.

McCoy still met Jim’s gaze. He wasn’t going to hide and he was no coward. He could deal with the consequences of his failures. He just wished that one day he’d get to keep something good.

“Bones?” Jim swiped at his eyes. “Could you free me?”

“I- uh, yeah, sure, kid.” The code on the cuff was the same as always and it clicked open, but McCoy couldn’t look up. “I hope that one day, Jim… that one day you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me.”

“Bones? What the hell are you talking about? I forgive you _now_.” Jim was rubbing at his wrist and looking at McCoy with a slight smirk.

McCoy’s head snapped up and his eyes were wet with tears and widened in disbelief. “What? You? Now?”

Jim chuckled. “Yeah. Now.” He straddled McCoy’s legs and pressed his lips to Bones’ ear. “Now that I know what a kinky bastard you are, I want to do those things to you.” He bit Bones’ earlobe, and McCoy felt himself shatter, arousal and relief warring in his exhausted body. He moaned aloud and pulled Jim tighter, closer to him. He could never get enough of Jim.

Jim arched into Bones’ and then whispered, “Pike’s gone. How about we try out his bed?”

“Fuck yeah!”

**Author's Note:**

>  **A/N:** This fills my cotton candy bingo _secret_ square.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** These are Paramount and Roddenberry's characters used in the spirit of creative commons. I promise to return them with smiles on.


End file.
